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Yesterday a Princess rode in on a Prince. The Prince of Penzance (PoP) that is. The Princess, Michelle Payne who yesterday was immortalised. Michelle became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. As talent acquisition professionals we all love our statistics so here’s a little about Michelle in numbers.

Payne has had 2404 rides to date, with 237 wins, 235 seconds and 231 thirds. This places Payne’s win percentage at 9.9% and her place percentage at 29.2%. $101, they were the odds for Michelle and PoP to win the Cup. 1, the barrier drawn for the race. 23, the number of horses they beat to the line. Awesome numbers for a Jockey. Next time Michelle is riding, get on an each way bet.

Here’s Michelle on diversity in the sport just after her win. Love the raw emotion, passion and honesty in her comments.

The racing industry has one of the highest ratios of women working in the industry, however the difficulty and challenges for women to gain opportunity and be successful are immense. Michelle, like Gai Waterhouse has broken through the barrier. As the racing industry struggles with off track drama, Michelle’s win will hopefully bring racing back on track and encourage more women to challenge the industry. Her win will provide more female jockeys opportunity, inspire the increasing numbers of female apprentices (which I will have you know in South Australia now exceed male apprentices), trainers, and owners.

About Stan Rolfe

Stan loves all things Talent Acquisition. With over fifteen years experience gained in agency and corporate recruitment teams, Stan loves to share his knowledge and experience through his blogs and regular attendance at ATCEvents. Some of his achievements include; Recipient of inaugural AsiaPacific CandE Awards, implemented virtual reality simulation into a mining recruitment process, and helped established one of Australia’s first proactive sourcing functions. Stan has a specific interest in HR Technology and Candidate Experience.